John Travis Wilson (1866-1916)

John Travis Wilson (1866-1916) was born to Henry Wilson and Mary Ellen Vickery Wilson on Sept. 19, 1866 in Escambia County, Florida. John T. was a very industrious young man with high ambitions for his life. John married Annie Missouri Flowers (1872-1957) on Dec. 7, 1887 in High Pine, Florida. While John was working six days a week pulling logs out of the swamp with a team of oxen, Annie skinned the bark from the logs with which they built their cabin. John floated his logs down the river to a saw mill where he sold them. He was a thrifty man and saved his money until he had enough to move to Blacksher, Baldwin County, Alabama. Land was cheap back then, being sold for only twenty-five cents an acre. He began his business with only one-hundred and sixty acres. He and his brother, Robert Brewster Wilson, formed a partnership in the Wilson Naval Store Company in Tensaw, Alabama, being incorporated under the laws of the State of South Dakota with a capital of $20,000. They eventually built two turpentine stills, a saw mill and employed over two hundred workers. These workers chipped the pine trees on several hundred acres of timber land and installed boxes on them in which to catch the pitch. Just months before his premature death in May of 1916 he made a bid on a lease of timber land for $525,000.00.

He and Annie built a nine bedroom home in 1894 on present day Highway 59 and begat a family of sixteen children, thirteen surviving to adulthood. The older children were sent to universities of higher learning across the country. The Wilson’s also built a school building for the Blacksher Community and provided room and board for the school teacher. He also built a church for the Blacksher community on his property, the Church of Christ, and housed the visiting preacher. The older children also manned the phone exchange which operated out of their home. John Wilson owned the first Cadillac in Baldwin County, a 1912 convertible touring car. John T. and Robert B. Wilson both died pre-maturely from illnesses in 1916 only seven months apart. Their families sold the business a few years later. What a legacy to leave their families and community and what might they have accomplished if they had lived longer lives?

From the Foley Library Genealogy Room: A 1905 Business and Community Directory for Baldwin County listed Blacksher with a population of 75 with the Banking Town of Bay Minette. Under businesses is also listed O.A. Wilson (John T. Wilson’s brother) as GSM (General Store); Obadiah A. “Obe” DOB 8-18-1868. Also listed was Tensaw, Baldwin County with Wilson,J.T. – Turpentine.

Photo: John T. Wilson Family in Blacksher, Alabama, about 1914. John T. at the wheel, B.B.and John Jr. sitting, Back left to right- Minnie, Kate, Ella, Gussie, Hattie Mae, and Jay Tee. (courtesy of Carolyn Hastings Dickinson)

For more information on the Wilson family, please visit A Lasting Love and Legacy: Annie Missouri Flowers Wilson by Carolyn Hastings Dickinson